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OXXIV
INTRODUCTION
The work opens with a salutation to the Jaina Tirthankaras, and it is followed by a preamble: Once upon a time several rogues proficient in the 'tricks of their trade gather together in the city of Ujjeni. It rained for a week, and they had to go without food. So they began to think as to who would give them a feast for the day. Mūladeva thereupon says:
Every one should address the chamber of cheats about what one had heard or experienced; and he who proves it to be an incredible lie should give food and drink to the gathering of rogues. But he who confirms the same by quoting parallels from various scriptures like the Purāna, Bhārata and Rāmāyana and convinces the audience, is not to give anything; and he would be made the lord of rogues'. S
On all having agreed to this, Müladera narrated his experience which was glaring with eight fantastic and improbable details*. All of them were confirmed by Kandariya by means of parallel episodes from the Vaidika mythology. Same was the case with other rogues who made their experience bristle with six, ten, ten and ten details of an unbelievable character. The last, however, outwitted all by putting them on the horns of a dilemma by adding in the end that the first four rogues were her servants lost since long. Thereupon this Khaņdaväņāt was accepted as the chief of all, and she managed to give them a feast by trickily extracting an ear-ring from a banker by charging him with the murder of her child. The
1 " USiltale e shtatet for-exup the lat" —I, 6 % According to Sarvajíla, a Kannada poet, this is a tale of brothers
killing brothers and of looseness of marriage institution (hädara), and those who respectfully attend to it degrade themselves'. He
has spared none from bis severe satirical writings. 3 See p. 2 of the critical study. 4 This is the way in which the author ridicules irrational Vaidika
legends. Thus he uses as it were a method of reductio ad absurdum. 5 While sho narrated her experience, the remaining rogues comfirmed
the same by Paurānika parallels. 6 Cf, one noted by Haribhadra in Dasaveyāliyaţikā (p. 56b). 7 In V, 98 she qualifies herself as 'attthārasadosavivajjiā', a glorifying
attribute usually applied to the Jaina Tirthankaras.
| SR No. | 008406 |
| Book Title | Anekantajay patakakhyam Prakaranam Part 2 |
| Original Sutra Author | Haribhadrasuri |
| Author | Munichandrasuri |
| Publisher | Oriental Research Institute Vadodra |
| Publication Year | 1947 |
| Total Pages | 503 |
| Language | Sanskrit, English |
| Classification | Book_Devnagari & Philosophy |
| File Size | 11 MB |